1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to accessories for safety belts in motor vehicles, such as automobiles, and more particularly to a cover for the connector anchoring a lock-carrying part of the belt to the vehicle floor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Safety belt systems have been developed in order to reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries resulting from motor vehicle accidents. Most of these systems include a belt connector having one end anchored to the vehicle floor and the other end provided with a buckle adapted to coact with the tongue of a seat belt assembly similarly secured to the vehicle. The connector generally comprises a plastic boot housing a webbing joining the buckle to an anchor on the vehicle floor. Such connectors are costly to form and assemble. In addition, they are large, bulky structures that decrease the seating space available for vehicle passengers. Connectors constructed of cable or metal strips have been proposed. Such metal connectors are uncomfortably cold in the winter and dangerously hot in the summer. They are aesthetically unattractive, and provide relatively hard objects within the vehicle passenger compartment that can tear packages, rip clothes and injure occupants present therein. As a result, safety belt connectors of the type described involve problems of cost, comfort, configuration and safety which have not yet been overcome.